1.
Royal Artillery
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The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery, is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name Royal Regiment of Artillery it actually consists of 13 Regular Regiments and 5 Reserve Regiments, the introduction of artillery into the English army came as early as the Battle of Crécy in 1346. Henry VIII made the armys artillery semi-permanent in the sixteenth century, before the 18th century, artillery traynes were raised by royal warrant for specific campaigns and disbanded again when they were over. On 26 May 1716, however, by warrant of George I two regular companies of field artillery, each 100 men strong, were raised at Woolwich. The title Royal Artillery was first used in 1720, in 1741 the Royal Military Academy was formed in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich to provide training for RA and Royal Engineers officers. The regiment expanded rapidly and, by 1757, had 24 companies divided into two battalions, as well as a company formed in 1741. During 1748, the presidential artilleries of Bengal, Madras and Bombay were formed,1756 saw the creation of the Royal Irish Regiment of Artillery. In 1762 the Royal Artillery Band was formed at Minden, by 1771 there were 32 companies in four battalions, as well as two invalid companies comprising older and unfit men employed in garrison duties. During 1782, the regiment moved to the Royal Artillery Barracks on Woolwich Common, in January 1793, two troops of Royal Horse Artillery were raised to provide fire support for the cavalry, augmented by two more in November 1793. The Royal Irish Artillery was absorbed into the RA in 1801, during 1805, the Royal Military Academy moved to Woolwich Common. In 1819, the Rotunda was given to the regiment by the Prince Regent to celebrate end of the Napoleonic Wars, in 1832, the regimental motto, Ubique Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducunt, was granted. The motto signified that the regiment had seen action in all the conflicts of the British Army. The regiment was under the control of the Board of Ordnance until the board was abolished in 1855, thereafter the regiment came under the War Office along with the rest of the army. The School of Gunnery established at Shoeburyness, Essex in 1859, the third group continued to be titled simply Royal Artillery, and was responsible for ammunition storage and supply. Which branch a gunner belonged to was indicated by metal shoulder titles, the RFA and RHA also dressed as mounted men, whereas the RGA dressed like foot soldiers. In 1920 the rank of Bombardier was instituted in the Royal Artillery, the three sections effectively functioned as separate corps. This arrangement lasted until 1924, when the three amalgamated once more to one regiment. In 1938, RA Brigades were renamed Regiments, during the World War II there were over 1 million men serving in 960 gunner regiments
2.
French and Indian War
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The French and Indian War comprised the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years War of 1754–1763. At the start of the war, the French North American colonies had a population of roughly 60,000 European settlers, the outnumbered French particularly depended on the Indians. Following months of localised conflict, the nations declared war on each other in 1756. The name French and Indian War, used mainly in the United States, British and European historians use the term the Seven Years War, as do English speaking Canadians. French Canadians call it La guerre de la Conquête or the Fourth Intercolonial War, fighting took place primarily along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from Virginia in the south to Newfoundland in the north. It began with a dispute over control of the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, called the Forks of the Ohio, and the site of the French Fort Duquesne. The dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, in 1755, six colonial governors in North America met with General Edward Braddock, the newly arrived British Army commander, and planned a four-way attack on the French. None succeeded, and the effort by Braddock proved a disaster, he lost the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9,1755. In 1755, the British captured Fort Beauséjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia, orders for the deportation were given by William Shirley, Commander-in-Chief, North America, without direction from Great Britain. The Acadians, both captured in arms and those who had sworn the loyalty oath to His Britannic Majesty, were expelled. Native Americans were likewise driven off their land to make way for settlers from New England, after the disastrous 1757 British campaigns, the British government fell. France concentrated its forces against Prussia and its allies in the European theatre of the war, between 1758 and 1760, the British military launched a campaign to capture the Colony of Canada. They succeeded in capturing territory in surrounding colonies and ultimately the city of Quebec, though the British later lost the Battle of Sainte-Foy west of Quebec, the French ceded Canada in accordance with the Treaty of Paris. The outcome was one of the most significant developments in a century of Anglo-French conflict, France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi to Great Britain. It ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to its ally Spain, in compensation for Spains loss to Britain of Florida. Frances colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the conflict is known by multiple names. In British America, wars were often named after the sitting British monarch, such as King Williams War or Queen Annes War. As there had already been a King Georges War in the 1740s, British colonists named the war in King Georges reign after their opponents
3.
Siege of Louisbourg (1758)
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The British government realized that with the Fortress of Louisbourg under French control, there was no way that the Royal Navy could sail up the St. Lawrence River for an attack on Quebec unmolested. Pitt assigned the duty of capturing the fortress to Major General Jeffrey Amherst, amhersts brigadiers were Charles Lawrence, James Wolfe and Edward Whitmore, and command of naval operations was assigned to Admiral Edward Boscawen. As they had in 1757, the French planned to defend Louisbourg by a large naval build-up, however, the French fleet sailing from Toulon was blockaded in Cartagena by a British force, and a relief force was defeated at the Battle of Cartagena. After this the French abandoned their attempt to reinforce Louisbourg from the Mediterranean, British forces assembled at Halifax, Nova Scotia where army and navy units spent most of May training together as the massive invasion fleet came together. After a large gathering at the Great Pontack, on 29 May the Royal Navy fleet departed from Halifax for Louisbourg, the fleet consisted of 150 transport ships and 40 men-of-war. Housed in these ships were almost 14,000 soldiers, almost all of whom were regulars, the force was divided into three divisions, Red, commanded by James Wolfe, Blue, commanded by Charles Lawrence and White commanded by Edward Whitmore. On 2 June the British force anchored in Gabarus Bay,3 miles from Louisbourg, however, unlike the previous year, the French navy was unable to assemble in significant numbers, leaving the French squadron at Louisbourg outnumbered five to one by the British fleet. Drucour ordered trenches to be prepared and manned by some 2,000 French troops, along with other defences, such as an artillery battery, at Kennington Cove. Weather conditions in the first week of June made any landing impossible, however, conditions improved, and at daybreak on 8 June Amherst launched his assault using a flotilla of large boats, organized in 7 divisions, each commanded by one of his brigadiers. French defenses were successful and after heavy losses, Wolfe ordered a retreat. However, at the last minute, a boatload of light infantry in Wolfes division found a rocky inlet protected from French fire, Wolfe redirected the rest of his division to follow. Outflanked, the French retreated rapidly back to their fortress, continuing heavy seas and the difficulty inherent to moving siege equipment over boggy terrain delayed the commencement of the formal siege. In the meantime, Wolfe was sent with 1,220 picked men around the harbour to seize Lighthouse Point, after eleven days, on 19 June, the British artillery batteries were in position and the orders were given to open fire on the French. The British battery consisted of seventy cannons and mortars of all sizes, within hours, the guns had destroyed walls and damaged several buildings. On 21 July a mortar round from a British gun on Lighthouse Point struck a 74 gun French ship of the line, LEntreprenant, a stiff breeze fanned the fire, and shortly after the LEntreprenant caught fire, two other French ships had caught fire. LEntreprenant exploded later in the day, depriving the French of the largest ship in the Louisbourg fleet, the next major blow to French morale came on the evening of 23 July, at 10,00. A British hot shot set the Kings Bastion on fire, the Kings Bastion was the fortress headquarters and the largest building in North America in 1758. Its destruction eroded confidence and reduced morale in the French troops, most historians regard the British actions of 25 July as the straw that broke the camels back
4.
Expulsion of the Acadians
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The Expulsion occurred during the French and Indian War and was part of the British military campaign against New France. The British first deported Acadians to the Thirteen Colonies, and after 1758 transported additional Acadians to Britain, in all, of the 14,100 Acadians in the region, approximately 11,500 Acadians were deported. After the British Siege of Port Royal in 1710, the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht allowed the Acadians to keep their lands, over the next forty-five years, however, the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to Britain. During the same period, they participated in various military operations against the British. As a result, the British sought to eliminate any future threat posed by the Acadians. In the first wave of the expulsion, Acadians were deported to other British colonies, during the second wave, they were deported to Britain and France, from where they migrated to Louisiana. Acadians fled initially to Francophone colonies such as Canada, the northern part of Acadia, Isle Saint-Jean. During the second wave of the expulsion, these Acadians were either imprisoned or deported, throughout the expulsion, Acadians and the Wabanaki Confederacy continued a guerrilla war against the British in response to British aggression which had been continuous since 1744. Thousands of Acadians died in the expulsions, mainly from diseases, on July 11,1764, the British government passed an order-in-council to permit Acadians to legally return to British territories, provided that they take an unqualified oath of allegiance. The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow memorialized the event in his poem about the plight of the fictional character Evangeline. After the British officially gained control of Acadia in 1713, the Acadians refused to sign an oath of loyalty to become British subjects. Instead, they negotiated a conditional oath that promised neutrality, some Acadians remained neutral and refused the unconditional oath. The difficulty was partly religious, as the British monarch was the head of the Protestant Church of England, other Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath because they were anti-British. Various historians have observed that some Acadians were labelled neutral when they were not, by the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians, there was already a long history of political and military resistance by Acadians and the Wabanaki Confederacy to the British occupation of Acadia. The Mikmaq and the Acadians were allies through their Catholicism and numerous inter-marriages, while the Acadians were the largest population, the Wabanaki Confederacy, particularly the Mikmaq, held the military strength in Acadia even after the British conquest. They resisted the British occupation and were joined on occasions by Acadians. These efforts were supported and led by French priests in the region. In 1753, French troops from Canada marched south and seized and fortified the Ohio Valley, Britain protested the invasion and claimed Ohio for itself
5.
Battle of the Thousand Islands
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The Battle of the Thousand Islands during the French and Indian war was fought 16–24 August 1760, in the upper St. The engagement took place at Fort Lévis, Pointe au Baril, the small French garrison at Fort Lévis held the much larger British army at bay for over a week, managing to sink two British warships and to cripple a third. Their resistance delayed the British advance to Montreal from the west, by August 1760, the French were building Fort Lévis at Île Royale in the St. Lawrence River. Captain Pierre Pouchot was assigned its defense, Pouchot had been taken prisoner after the siege of Fort Niagara, but he was later released in a prisoner exchange. Chevalier de Lévis original design for the called for stone walls,200 guns. What Pouchot had was a fort with wooden stockades, five cannon and 200 soldiers. Also under Pouchots command were the corvettes lOutaouaise and lIroquoise, crewed by 200 sailors and voyageurs, lIroquoise, under command of Commodore René Hypolite Pépin dit La Force, was armed with ten 12-pound cannon and swivel guns. LOutaouaise, commanded by Captain Pierre Boucher de LaBroquerie carried ten 12-pounders, one 18-pound gun, after the fall of Quebec in the 1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham, British Commander-in-Chief General Jeffrey Amherst prepared to launch a three-pronged attack to take Montreal. Columns were to advance along the Saint Lawrence River from Quebec to the northeast, up the Richelieu River from Lake Champlain to the south, the latter force, which Amherst led personally, numbered some 10,000 men and 100 siege guns. La Force had run his corvette lIroquoise aground at Pointe au Baril on 1 August, although lIroquoise was raised, it was deemed too damaged to be put into action. It was beached again under the guns at Fort Lévis, Amhersts force set out from Oswego on 10 August. Captain Joshua Loring, who commanded the British snows Onondaga and Mohawk, had sent ahead of Amhersts force as an advance guard. The Onondaga, had launched at Fort Niagara as the Apollo in 1759. Commanded by Loring, it carried four 9-pound guns, fourteen 6-pounders, the Mohawk, commanded by Lieutenant David Phipps, carried sixteen 6-pounders and a crew of 90 seamen and 30 soldiers. On 7 August, French lookouts sighted the Onondaga and the Mohawk from their outpost at Ile aux Chevreuils, the French withdrew in a row galley, pursued by the Onondaga and the Mohawk. The two British ships got lost in the maze of islands, and did not find their way back to the channel for several days. Amhersts force arrived at Pointe au Baril on 16 August, fearing the remaining French ship might attack his transports, Amherst ordered Colonel George Williamson to capture lOutaouaise the following day. At dawn of 17 August, Williamson set out in a gig, the galleys took shelter fore and aft of lOutaouaise, where they could not be hit by the ships broadsides
6.
American Revolutionary War
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From about 1765 the American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented a culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the authority which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On December 16,1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, these became known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees, British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec, on July 2,1776, the Continental Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe began a British counterattack, focussing on recapturing New York City, Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington captured a Hessian force at Trenton and drove the British out of New Jersey, in 1777 the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne to move south from Canada and to isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the British defeat in the Saratoga Campaign had drastic consequences. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage their former colonies in the South, British forces under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. British strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, in 1779 Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in December 1780, in 1781, after the British and their allies had suffered two decisive defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route, a joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781, Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, but the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand
7.
Battle of Long Island
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The Battle of Long Island is also known as the Battle of Brooklyn and the Battle of Brooklyn Heights. It was fought on August 27,1776 and was the first major battle of the American Revolutionary War to take place after the United States declared its independence on July 4,1776. It was a victory for the British Army and the beginning of a campaign that gave them control of the strategically important city of New York. In terms of troop deployment and fighting, it was the largest battle of the entire war, Washington understood that the citys harbor would provide an excellent base for the British Navy during the campaign, so he established defenses there and waited for the British to attack. After five days of waiting, the British attacked American defenses on the Guan Heights, unknown to the Americans, however, Howe had brought his main army around their rear and attacked their flank soon after. The Americans panicked, resulting in twenty percent losses through casualties and captures, the remainder of the army retreated to the main defenses on Brooklyn Heights. The British dug in for a siege but, on the night of August 29–30, Washington and the Continental Army were driven out of New York entirely after several more defeats and forced to retreat through New Jersey and into Pennsylvania. In the first stage of the war, the British Army was trapped in the city of Boston and they abandoned it on March 17, setting sail to Halifax. Washington then began to transfer regiments to New York City which he believed the British would next attack because of its strategic importance. Washington left Boston on April 4, arrived at New York on April 13, Washington had sent his second in command Charles Lee ahead to New York the previous February to establish the citys defenses. Lee remained in New York City until March, when the Continental Congress sent him to South Carolina, troops were in limited supply, so Washington found the defenses incomplete, but Lee had concluded that it would be impossible to hold the city with the British commanding the sea. He reasoned that the defenses should be located with the ability to inflict casualties upon the British if any move was made to take. Barricades and redoubts were established in and around the city, Lee also saw that the immediate area was cleared of Loyalists. Washington began moving troops to Brooklyn in early May, and there were several thousand of them there in a short time. Three more forts were under construction on the side of the East River to support Fort Stirling. These new fortifications were Fort Putnam, Fort Greene, and Fort Box and they lay from north to south, with Fort Putnam farthest to the north, Greene slightly to the southwest, and Box slightly farther southwest. Each of these structures was surrounded by a large ditch, all connected by a line of entrenchments. Fort Defiance was also being constructed at this time, located farther southwest, past Fort Box, hulks were sunk at strategic locations to deter the British from entering the East River and other waterways
8.
Battle of White Plains
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The Battle of White Plains was a battle in the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War fought on October 28,1776, near White Plains, New York. Alerted to this move, Washington retreated farther, establishing a position in the village of White Plains, Howes troops drove Washingtons troops from a hill near the village, following this loss, Washington ordered the Americans to retreat farther north. Later British movements chased Washington across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania, Washington then crossed the Delaware and surprised a brigade of Hessian troops in the December 26 Battle of Trenton. British General William Howe, after evacuating Boston in March 1776, regrouped in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the campaign began with an unopposed landing on Staten Island in early July. After losing the Battle of Long Island on August 27, General Washington, General Howe followed up with a landing on Manhattan on September 15, but his advance was checked the next day at Harlem Heights. Howe established a camp at New Rochelle, but advance elements of his army were near Mamaroneck, only 7 miles from White Plains, on October 20, General Washington sent Colonel Rufus Putnam out on a reconnaissance mission from his camp at Harlem Heights. Putnam discovered the general placement of the British troop locations and recognized the danger to the army, when he reported this to Washington that evening, Washington immediately dispatched Putnam with orders to Lord Stirling, whose troops were furthest north, to immediately march to White Plains. They arrived at White Plains at 9 am on October 21, Washington decided to withdraw most of the army to White Plains, leaving a garrison of 1,200 men under Nathanael Greene to defend Fort Washington on Manhattan. General Howes army advanced slowly, with troops from his center and right moving along the road from New Rochelle to White Plains, while a unit of Loyalists occupied Mamaroneck. The latter was attacked that night by a detachment of Lord Stirlings troops under John Haslet, who more than thirty prisoners as well as supplies. As a result, Howe moved elements of his wing to occupy Mamaroneck. On October 22, Howe was reinforced by the landing at New Rochelle of an additional 8,000 troops under the command of Wilhelm von Knyphausen. Washington established his headquarters at the Elijah Miller House in North White Plains on October 23, the trenches were situated on raised terrain, protected on the right by the swampy ground near the Bronx River, with steeper hills further back as a place of retreat. The American defenses were 3 miles long, beyond that, on the right, was Chattertons Hill, which commanded the plain over which the British would have to advance. The hill was occupied by militia companies numbering several hundred. On October 24 and 25, Howes army moved from New Rochelle to Scarsdale and this move was apparently made in the hopes of catching Charles Lees column, which had to alter its route toward White Plains and execute a forced march at night to avoid them. While Washington was inspecting the terrain to determine where it was best to station his troops, messengers alerted him that the British were advancing. Spencers force advanced to a position on the old York road at Harts corners, Ralls troops attempted to gain the hill, but were repelled by fire from Haslets troops and the militia, and retreated to a nearby hilltop on the same side of the river
9.
Battle of Fort Washington
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The Battle of Fort Washington was a battle fought in New York on November 16,1776 during the American Revolutionary War between the United States and Great Britain. It was a British victory that gained the surrender of the remnant of the garrison of Fort Washington near the end of Manhattan Island. It was one of the worst Patriot defeats, General Washington issued a discretionary order to General Nathanael Greene to abandon the fort and remove its garrison – then numbered at 1,200 men but later to grow to 3,000 – to New Jersey. Colonel Robert Magaw, commanding the fort, declined to abandon it as he believed it could be defended from the British, howes forces attacked the fort before Washington reached it to assess the situation. Howe launched his attack on November 16 and he led an assault from three sides, the north, east and south. Tides in the Harlem River prevented some troops from landing and delayed the attack, when the British moved against the defenses, the southern and western American defenses fell quickly. Patriot forces on the north side offered stiff resistance to the Hessian attack, with the fort surrounded by land and sea, Colonel Magaw chose to surrender. A total of 59 Americans were killed and 2,837 were taken as prisoners of war, after this defeat, most of Washingtons army was chased across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania, and the British consolidated their control of New York and eastern New Jersey. During the American Revolutionary War, Fort Washington was located at the highest point of the island of Manhattan, along with Fort Lee, located just across the Hudson River atop the New Jersey Palisades, the twin forts were intended to protect the lower Hudson from British warships. Later in June, the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, George Washington, inspected the location, shortly after Washingtons survey, troops from Pennsylvania began construction on the fort under the supervision of Rufus Putnam. They first prepared a cheval de frise to prevent British ships from sailing up the Hudson, when the cheval de frise was finished, they began work on the fort. Little soil covered the surface, so men had to haul soil up from the low ground. They were unable to dig the ditches or trenches around the fort. The fort was built in the shape of a pentagon with five bastions, the main walls were made of earth, constructed with ravelins with openings for guns from every angle. The fort enclosed a total of three to four acres, the troops built an abbattis around the fort. After the barracks were finished in September, all the troops in the area were placed under the command of Major General William Heath, Washington established his headquarters near the fort. Supporting the fort were numerous defenses, to the south of the fort were three lines of defense. The lines went through the hills and were made of trenches and foxholes, the first line was supported by a second line about 0.33 mi to the north, and a third line was planned to be built 0.25 mi north of the second
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Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lyre-Bird". Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 179.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "
